Entries from May 2010 ↓

This week’s interview is with Ben Viljoen. Simply incredible composition! Click through to his site and galleries, you will not be sorry!

How do you describe your photographic style? I specialise in capturing moments of the actual wedding day. A lot of what is deemed photo-journalism in the industry today is actually “natural looking” posed images. I try and gravitate towards real documentary photography.

For the wall stuff, the posed images, I’m considering a style of “tall, dark and handsome” as a standard reply to the dreaded question.

How did you get into photography? I bought a small Canon A300 for my 21^st, went on a couple of photo road trips with a friend who inspired me with his photography, and that’s where the photography thing bit.

Later on I came across a wedding photographer’s website who in turn persuaded me that wedding photography can actually be artistic, different and something one can be proud of (up until that point I was sure the only reason anyone would ever shoot weddings, is for the cash).

How long have you been photographing weddings? +/- 4 years

Where are you based? I work from home, Linden, Johannesburg.

I have this dream though of being based in a small town somewhere in the Free State, possibly next to the Vaal dam. I’m not a huge fan of the city.

What has been the highlight of your career as a wedding photographer so far? Being in business. Only a few years ago I would never have imagined myself as a professional photographer, shooting weddings for a living. I am very blessed indeed.

Mauritius was nice too.

Which are your favourite wedding photographs, and why? I don’t really have favourites, but here are five that I really like. All of them have strong compositional elements, and they tend to fit well into the “tall (wide), dark and handsome” category. Personally I’m also drawn more towards elegant and dramatic, as opposed to fun and silly.

How do you market yourself? Networking with other professionals, and I also have a website and I keep a blog that seems to attract some attention. Other than that…a little Twitter, a little forum posting, but I’m not really big on those.

What type of camera do you use? DSLR’s. Specifically I work with a Canon 5D MkII, and a Canon 50D.

What would you love to add to your equipment? I am actually very happy with my current system, but probably a couple of Canon 1D series cameras (1D MkIV, and a 1Ds MkII). Their focusing systems are simply out of this world, something that is lacking a bit on the 5D series of cameras especially.

I like to travel light when shooting though, so my equipment is always kept to a minimum.

How important is a tool like Photoshop in your work, and do you retouch at all? Post processing determines a great deal of a photographer’s style, or lack thereof. I often read photographers on forums who claim they don’t use Photoshop, “except to……..” It’s a bit like saying, I don’t use a camera for my work, except on Saturdays.

The plain answer, I do retouch, and I consider it absolutely essential.

If you could be invisible- with your camera- for a day, you would… probably engage in some war photography or similar. I’m a big fan of the work of guys like Nachtwey, Salgado, Riboud, and McCullin, and I draw a lot of inspiration from them, but in general I’m sane enough not to put my life on the line for a photograph. Even the idea of doing street photography in South Africa scares me a bit. I’m such a wimp.

What advice do you have for photographers who are just starting out? Decide what you want to do photographically speaking (weddings, portraits, baby, etc), and try to build your business around that genre. A little this and a little that would rarely get you anywhere business wise.

It’s a different story once you are established I think.

Where on the web can people find you? People can find my work at www.benviljoenphotography.co.za, for more, click on the blog link.

Where would you love to go for a wedding shoot? Antarctica, it’s the perfect place to incorporate my penguin pose^TM

What will you be up to in 2010? I am taking a complete break from shooting weddings this winter, at which time I will also re-assess the new 2010/2011 wedding season and my goals and desires.

Shooting less and charging more is possibly on the agenda. I recently discovered that I’m actually pretty cheap compared.

Other news is that Cindy, my wife, will officially be joining the studio in August as a staff member.

I might also be shooting a wedding in Zimbabwe towards the end of the year, and possibly get arrested for fear of being a journalist. Just follow the news headlines around December.

Meet Adele Kok! This week’s interview is with a Pretoria based photog I actually found via a bride she photographed. Her website is regularly updated, and she’s on Facebook too.

How do you describe your photographic style? We have a very relaxed, photojournalistic style (I say we, because my husband and I work together). We like to capture your day as it happens, with the least amount of interference. Of course there will be one or 2 posed shots, but that’s not our main focus. I like to capture the detail, true emotion and atmosphere of the wedding day and make a piece of art out of that!

How did you get into photography? I have always had a love for photos. I always had my “mik & druk” camera with me everywhere I went! Eventually I worked as a musician at weddings and what captured me most was watching the photographer. I did a make-up course first, and seeing how this combined so well with photography I realised, this is for me! My husband and I visited Malaysia where I bought my first camera and immediately after that I started with my photography course.

How long have you been photographing weddings? I worked as an assistant for about 6 months, and doing weddings by myself for about 2 and a half years.

Where are you based? Pretoria East.

What has been the highlight of your career as a wedding photographer so far? Doing our first wedding at a five star lodge in the Waterberg Mountains on the 24th of December. Working with a German couple in the heat of our summer, doing the couple shoot as a game drive. It was challenging, fun and breathtaking all at the same time!

Show us your five favourite wedding photographs!

How do you market yourself? I advertise on the web, do wedding expos but most of all word of mouth is important. People can trust referrals!

What type of camera do you use? I shoot with the Canon 500D, 24-70mm 2.8 lens and I also love my 50mm lens!

What would you love to add to your equipment? I would love to have a Canon 5D Mark II. There are many other things I want but that’s the main one for now!

How important is a tool like Photoshop in your work, and do you retouch at all? All digital photos need retouching if you ask me. I don’t “kill” my photos or make the people unrecognizable with Photoshop, but I consider it a very important tool.

Show us your five favourite outrageous/ artistic/ creative photographs!

If you could be invisible- with your camera- for a day, you would… capture peoples’ expressions. I love faces, emotions and expressions!  The problem with “visibility” is people change once they see your camera so it’s difficult to capture raw emotion. You usually have to be very sneaky!

What advice do you have for photographers who are just starting out? Well, seeing as I am also quite new in the business I would say believe in yourself and have some guts! You need to go out there and start doing what you do. Develop your style and just be yourself. The reason so many photographers make it out there, is because not one is the same.

Where on the web can people find you? Visit my website www.adelekokphoto.co.za. I also have a group on Facebook.

Where would you love to go for a wedding shoot? Somewhere like Zanzibar… I would love to do a beach/island wedding!

Is there anything you’re learning to do? I’m not actively taking any classes, but learning is something I do every day. Whether I learn something new about photography or make-up, (or about my husband), I believe we learn valuable lessons everyday!

What will you be up to in 2010? We have quite a few weddings ahead for 2010. And here I want to agree with Lizelle Lotter. It is sometimes challenging to balance the hours of editing and managing your business, with your personal time. I was recently reminded that at the end of the day, only YOU have control over your priorities. So, I am going to focus on that while still enjoying every single wedding we have the opportunity to capture!

I know its a crazy idea, but I like it.

If you would like to attend our wedding on 24^th July 2010- and you didn’t already get an invitation- here’s your chance!

As most people know, we have asked for a donation to ADHASA- a very personal cause and close to my heart- in lieu of wedding gifts. So now, all you need do is make a donation into my nephew Nathan’s fund as a raffle entry, and one month before the wedding I will pick 3 entries who will then get 2 seats at our wedding and get to celebrate with us!

Leave me a comment with a proper email address, and I’ll send you the banking details!!!

Your donation will not have an influence on whether I add your name to the draw at all, and it will not be made public either. You must include your name as a reference on the donation and obviously you must send me the details as well so I can get hold of you.

And of course, any and all arrangements to get to the wedding in Midrand, place to stay, transport, etcetera will be for you to take care of too.

This husband and wife team has oodles of experience, and it shows! Read on to find out more about Natasha du Preez Photography.

How do you describe your photographic style? I would say our wedding photography style is informal, somewhat photo journalistic capturing the moment rather than the posed image.

How did you get into photography? We lived in a small town in Natal and there were no local photographers.  The nearest photographers lived 1 hour away from this little town so I decided to try my hand at photography.   Since my high school days I always captured everything that happened and therefore have albums full of memories.  I first started with matric farewell functions (similar to prom) and also some studio photos.  When we moved to Pretoria, I tried my hand at wedding photography and needless to say I found my 2^nd love- the first is my husband and kids!  My husband used to go with me to the weddings and shoot a few images, more or less like a 2^nd shooter.  He got so good at it that he is now my partner in crime.  We are each others greatest fans and critics.  A win-win situation!

How long have you been photographing weddings? For the past 11 years.

What has been the highlight of your career as a wedding tog so far? Gosh, there certainly were so many highlights; just to be a part of someone’s special day is a highlight in itself.

Highlights would have to be getting recognition through national awards for our work.  We are really blessed because for the last 6 years we have received numerous awards every year.  We have had tons of brides as finalists in different competitions as well.  We were also the chosen togs to do the cover of the 2008 edition of “Die Bruidsgids”, the premium wedding magazine of South Africa.

At end of 2009 we decided to pay it forward by doing affordable get together’s with less experienced togs.  I posted an invite on Facebook and 5 togs joined us for that shoot.  Our images of the shoot were featured on Rock & Roll Bride (of which we were very proud) and were a huge success.  About a month ago we decided to do another get together and the response was huge.  We decided to only allow 16 togs at this shoot and we were fully booked even before we could advertise it.  It took some planning from my side, but it was worth the effort.  Since then I have had so many messages and requests from other togs who want to join in the next one.  We will be hosting a practical workshop in the beginning of June and the response to this is absolutely overwhelming.

We have recently being contacted by Junebug Weddings to become a member of their prestigious list of preferred photographers.  They choose only the top togs (the likes of Yervant and Jerry Ghionis) to become members of their list.  This is something to be quite proud of!

Which are your five favourite wedding photographs and why?

This was one of our all time favorite brides as well.  She had this Hollywood old-fashioned glamour look and was one of the easiest brides to photograph ever!  This photo in our eyes represents what a bride and a wedding is all about; love & beauty.

This was one of those “lucky” shots.  The couple entered the reception hall and just as they passed the wedding-cake, the fairy lights of the main table and the videographers light to the right gave this photo a very whimsical look and feel.  This image also got us a silver award at last year’s Sony Profoto Awards.

This was one of our recent weddings and the surrounding of old buildings was the inspiration for this image.  Just had to use the old fashioned style of wedding photography to add to this image.  Just love the groom’s expression on this one, really looks like it was taken a few centuries ago.

This couple was so much fun to work with and to me this image really tells their story and compliments their personalities so well.  Only after I took this image I realized that the shops name- Life Is Good- added to the story telling of this image.  They got married at the beach and I wanted to bring the blue colors into the images, so when I saw this window dressing representing beach and blue, I had to take a photo in front of the window.  Until that stage I did not even notice the shop name at all!

This must be one of our best ever photo’s of movement in a brides dress.   Love the dreamy feeling you get looking at this image.

How do you market yourself? We used to advertise in a national bridal magazine, but eventually got so many word-of-mouth referrals that we actually stopped the ad in the magazine.  Our website, Facebook and referrals are our main ads at this stage.

What type of camera do you use? The Nikon d3 and Nikon d700.  Just love these cameras. Both my husband and I have a set of each.

What would you love to add to your equipment? Fortunately we have all the equipment we need at the moment, but we would like to upgrade our existing equipment to the latest editions.  Considering buying the Nikon 14 – 24 mm f2.8 wide angle lens.

How important is a tool like Photoshop in your work and do you retouch at all? I love editing so therefore I love Photoshop and light room.   I believe that couples book us on our style of photography as well as our style of editing.  I don’t like going over the top with editing, but I like to enhance certain things in a photo and still keep it natural.  I don’t like to smooth out someone’s face to much so that it actually looks unnatural and I never liquefy someone’s features because I believe you should get that posing right in camera.  Editing can really make a photo pop if it’s done the right way.  Kind of like an art piece.  There really is a fine line between natural editing and overdone editing.

Which are your five favourite outrageous/ creative/ unusual photographs and why?

This image was part of their TTD session the next morning.  Just loved the way they are starring into the future with the contrast of the wedding dress and him dressed in his jeans and shirtless.  Normally the grooms would dress in their suits to match the bride.

Another TTD image.  Love the fact that they got down in the water on their backs with their just married slip slops on.  They were soaking wet and full of sand after this, but they did not care at all.

Also a TTD session, but the wind was blowing us off the beach and it was freezing cold at this early hour of the morning.  You can see the expression on their faces really battling to run towards us in the gale force winds.

Just loved the expression on the grooms face when we told the groomsmen to give the groom a kiss!

This couple decided to open the dance floor with a bang!  And a bang it was with her pink leggings and takkies.

If you could be invisible – with your camera – for a day, you would…  love to hang around a high fashion shoot with one of the world’s top models and top fashion photographers.  I would also have loved to follow Coco Chanel on her journey to stardom.  Thinking about it, I think I would want to explore anything and everything of the fashion photography industry.

What advice do you have for togs who are just starting out? To shoot weddings is very stressful in the beginning, it’s not like you can redo the wedding the next day if something went wrong photography wise.  You need to have enough confidence in your work as well as yourself to do this job. Obviously your equipment also plays a huge part in your confidence.   You need to be a people’s person and you need to be able to interact with people you have never met or seen in your life before.  You need to stay calm at all times (even if the bride runs late and you know you will not get the allocated time for photographs).  You need to make each and every couple feel special and comfortable.  Know exactly what the day will hold in for you regarding time schedules, details and so on.  You should treat every wedding like it is your own child’s wedding.  If you do that you are so tuned into everything on the day.  We had a great comment recently on our blog from one of the guests complimenting us on small detail that they did not even notice on the tables.  That is a huge compliment.

Where would you love to go for a wedding shoot? Tuscany or Venice

Is there anything you’re learning to do? I am learning new techniques of photography; business; editing and album layouts every day.  I’m surfing the net constantly to get inspiration and see what other togs worldwide is up to.  I love photography so much that there is no time (by choice though!) to learn anything else which is not photography related at the moment.

What will you be up to in 2010? We as a family are moving to Australia during this year and hope to continue with our photography when we arrive there.  We are also going to attend Skip’s Summer School in Las Vegas in August and are super excited about this trip.  Will be doing some shoots in Las Vegas as well as in New York during this trip.

This week I am interviewing Stellenbosch based Lizelle Lotter!

I found Lizelle on  Rock ‘n Roll Bride- one of my favourite places to browse what is known as “wedding porn”- and I was impressed with her work. I think you will be too.

Lizelle has a blog attached to her website where she talks a little bit more about the shoots she does. You can find her on Twitter, and she’s on Facebook!

How do you describe your photographic style? I love action, reaction, emotion, energy, quirkiness and people just being who they are, so whenever I get a chance to capture that, I am as happy as can be. I think what I like to capture, describe my style!

How did you get into photography? When I was in high school, my dad bought my mom an awesome film camera. Or at least I thought the camera was cool back then; it had a 300mm zoom! I started playing around with it and walked around for hours finding little things I can photograph. (The developing costs ate all my spending money, but I did not mind!) That was when it started and I’m not sure what will get me to ever stop! From there I studied photography for a year at City Varsity, worked for 2 years (really started at the bottom) and then studied Photography and Graphic design at Stellenbosch Academy of Design and Photography for 3 years. Still love it!

How long have you been photographing weddings? Wedding photography started slowly. The first time i just took my camera along to one of my good friends’ weddings. That is almost 9 years ago! After that one of my friends asked me if I would take their wedding photos. I really had a lot of fun, but the idea of doing mainly wedding photography did not even cross my mind. I assisted one or 2 photographers and it then in 2006, I did my “first real wedding” with a contract (more like a draft) and everything. The bride’s mother found me and just believed that I had talent! It is people like that that got me going. After I finished my studies and a short visit to the USA (to do a friends wedding there) I started doing weddings full time. That was middle 2008.

What has been the highlight of your career as a wedding photographer so far?  Oooh, there are lots of highlights with my job. So many times, when the bride walks down the aisle, my eyes water. Then I am very glad that my camera is pretty much fixed to my face. I get to meet the most awesome couples in a very intimate time of their lives. I get to see places that I would never have seen differently, e.g. the Caprivi and Colorado! And then of course feedback from over excited bride and grooms are always a winner-highlight in any week.

Which are your five favourite wedding photographs, and why? Here are a few of my fav ones. They do change all the time, but if a photo moves something in my heart, I like it:

How do you market yourself? I believe in:

1. Word of mouth

2. Social networking eg. Facebook, Twitter, Blogging etc.

If your friends believe in a “product” or “service”, you are very likely to believe in it too. An ad in a mag is nice, but it is like a CV with no reference to back it up.

What type of camera do you use? I shoot with Canon 5D Mark II. My fav lens is my 50mm f1.4. My most recent addition to my equipment family is a Diana F Lomography camera.

What would you love to add to your equipment? How many things may I mention? Ok, let’s keep it to 3:

85mm f1.2 lens

fish eye

Polaroid camera

How important is a tool like Photoshop in your work, and do you retouch at all? I do not use Photoshop that often, but all my photos are edited in Adobe Lightroom. Editing plays such a huge role in the look and feel of images. I have a photography style, but I also have my way of editing, which I feel compliments my style. If I give the same image to 5 different photographers, each one of them will be different. I mostly do colour corrections, add black, contrast etc etc, but every now and them I will for instance crop a bit, remove a little mark on the photo or “soften the skin” of the bride. That is about how far I go with editing. O, and then of course, I sharpen in Photoshop. There is a free action that you can download from “Totally Rad Actions” site. The action is called “slice like a ninja” and sometimes the difference is mind blowing. Go check it out!

Which are your five favourite outrageous/ artistic/ creative photographs and why? For wedding pics it will have to be the things you do not normally do with a bride and groom, like letting them really do crazy stuff, “chopping their heads off” in the shot, making them pull faces, taking seriously out of focus pics, taking pictures in weird-unlike-wedding spots like a post office, shoot their pics in the rain on their wedding day etc. Oh, and I also had the one bride that was willing to stand in a tree in the middle of a river full of hippo’s!

If you could be invisible- with your camera- for a day… I would do some sort of documentary. Go to a place that exceeds my wildest imagination and spend some time on one place, just documenting. But then after all, I will probably want to talk to them after a while. Can I be a talking invisible documenting person?

What advice do you have for photographers who are just starting out? Seriously, I am pretty new in this thing, so do not feel that I am old and wise, but if I can give my 2 pennies it will be: Keep you clients happy! It does not help you are no.1 on the Google search and your clients will not refer you.

Where would you love to go for a wedding shoot? ALL OVER THE WORLD! Vietnam, South America, Sudan, Alaska…! But now that I think about it, wherever the couple love God and each other. That is pretty much the ultimate.

Is there anything you’re learning to do? Yes, heheee! Planning my life and how to live a balanced life!

What will you be up to in 2010? That actually links up with the previous question, because in stead of shooting weddings during the quite season this year, I am planning on just catching up, resting, travelling and doing some documentary photography. The rest of the year is pretty busy, so I will use that time to practice my new “balanced life” skills.